Expert: Prosecutors Could Be Using Michael Cohen To Avoid Quick Defeat
Charlie Kirk Staff
05/14/2024
Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley believes that the prosecutors, led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in the alleged hush money case involving adult movie star Stormy Daniels, are using Michael Cohen to avoid being swiftly defeated.
The George Washington University law professor said on Monday that the prosecution could be using Cohen to avoid a “direct verdict” from the judge that would essentially take the decision from the hands of the jury and render an acquittal for the former president.
“It was really interesting before his testimony to watch this effort to get in the agreement of the accountant. That was such an obvious and dishonest move by the prosecutors,” he said of the severance agreement of former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. “You have to wonder whether this judge is having second thoughts about his failure to stop this case or at least force the prosecution to be clear about it. There is nothing stopping the prosecutor from calling that accountant, so the introduction of that agreement was clearly intended to suggest to the jury that they have some smoking gun evidence, but because of this agreement they can’t present it. That’s entirely untrue and so Merchan was right to say I’m not going to let you do that.”
“It goes to how this is a Potemkin village of a case. They are proving stuff not in evidence while leaving suggestions of stuff that is in evidence with the jury,” he said. “So the thing to keep in mind is: When the prosecution wraps up its case, the defense will stand up and make a standard motion for a directed verdict to say there is insufficient evidence to support a crime in this case. That’s an extremely powerful argument because you have seen we’re still debating what the crime is. Even on this network, you have people disagreeing as to what the theory of this case is and the prosecution is about to wrap.”
“Now, what the prosecution is worried about is that even Judge Merchan may just say ‘You know what? I gave you a shot and you didn’t sink it and so I’m going to direct this verdict, I’m going to issue an acquittal,’” the professor said.
“The way they are going to get around that is just get Cohen to say ‘this happened, that he intentionally wanted me to put – wanted this to be a legal expense, he intentionally was committing fraud, he was trying to conceal campaign violations,’ even though very few people on earth would believe Michael Cohen, the prosecutors will argue to the judge ‘that is a credibility question, judge, and you need to let this go to the jury, whether you believe him or not, that is a fact question for the jury.’ That is their entire strategy, and so as unbelievable as Cohen may be, I don’t think the prosecutors think he will be believable, they just want him to check a box,” he said.